MEP Pascal Canfin takes up the defense in Le Monde of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who in his eyes should not be “changed”, and criticizes the “strategy of tension” of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
“There would be no political benefit to changing the Prime Minister, except to change the line,” said Mr. Canfin, in charge of government relations within the presidential Renaissance party, in an interview posted online on Saturday.
“No one would have done better than her” on pensions, “she must not pay the piper” of the Republicans, divided on the reform. “As long as the challenge is to appease, to get back on track, why change? Besides, no one among the social partners is saying that someone else would have negotiated better,” says MEP.
Asked about Gérald Darmanin’s remarks on the “intellectual terrorism” of the left or his desire to “look at” the public subsidy paid to the League for Human Rights (LDH), Pascal Canfin considers that “we must not fall in a hysterization of the debate, in the conflictuality and in the strategy of tension”.
“The key to the success of a central pole is to assume dialogue, nuance, compromise, complexity”, adds the Renaissance manager. “Otherwise, we will play into the game of extremism and the weakening of democracy,” said Mr. Canfin. “The opponent of 2027 is the RN”.
On the LDH, “a Minister of the Interior cannot threaten to review the subsidies of an organization because he does not agree with it. Democracy is pluralism. It is not not acceptable as an approach”, considers Mr. Canfin, who notes in this respect that “there is no official position of the government on this subject”.
On the tensions between the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger and President Emmanuel Macron, he considers that before the decision of the Constitutional Council on April 14, “it is too early to project ourselves into a quality dialogue”.
“The majority must first put more emphasis on its social measures” and “the tax issue should not be a taboo,” he says. On ecology, the former EELV activist considers that “things are progressing but we don’t see it enough”.
08/04/2023 11:20:33 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP